Beautiful Chaos with Three Kids at the Beach

I find it hard to come up with words to describe my time with a family like this one. I’ll try anyway, but I think the pictures will do better.

Raising three kids in the city is not easy, and doing so in a way that gives them a connection to nature and a true sense of independence is even more of a challenge. This family of five lives near Ocean Beach in San Francisco. The beach is their playground, their sanctuary, and where their kids find a growing sense of freedom.

We wanted to capture their typical weekend morning – coffee and pastries at Andytown on Taraval Street, a walk down to the Ocean Beach dunes, and shoes off splashing around in the cold Pacific Ocean.

I did almost no directing during this session, and mostly stood back and observed. The whole family – kids and parents alike – were at once close and loving and ready to jump off the dunes and get sandy.

There were a thousand tender moments amidst the beautifully wild ones. My hope is that I captured a few that will help them remember what it felt like in this short season of their lives.